1. society
2. unrest and war

Comparing
Texts
Where Have You Gone, Charming Billy?
Short Story by Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien: The Naked Soldier
Interview from Verbicide Magazine
Be a Marine
Recruitment Poster
VIDEO TRAILER
KEYWORD: HML9-826
Is FEAR our
worst enemy?
RL 4 Determine the figurative
meaning of words and phrases
and analyze the impact of specific
word choices on meaning and tone.
RL 5 Analyze how an author’s
choices concerning how to order
events and manipulate time create
mystery, tension, or surprise.
L 3 Apply knowledge of language
to understand how language
functions in different contexts and
to comprehend more fully.
826
Your heart pounds. Your hands shake. Your stomach churns. Adrenaline
floods your body. You are gripped by fear, and the way you react to it
is as unique as your fingerprints. In “Where Have You Gone, Charming
Billy?” a young soldier struggling through his first night in Vietnam tries
desperately to combat his growing terror.
What’s the Connection?
Experiencing the tragedies of war can frighten and permanently scar
even the bravest of soldiers, so why do people go to war? Is it heroic to
fight despite fear? After reading the following short story, you’ll read an
interview and view a poster that each convey certain messages about
honor, heroism, and war.
Video link at
thinkcentral.com
Meet the Author
text analysis: realism
You know that just as you and your friends have a style all
your own, so do writers. A writer’s style is the unique way
he or she communicates ideas. This style is reflected in the
dialogue, word choice, and sentence structure of every piece
of writing. In this story, Tim O’Brien uses the style of realism
to depict the horrors of combat as seen through the eyes of
a young soldier. To make the story seem real to the reader,
he uses
• dialogue that sounds natural, like actual speech
• vivid, realistic descriptions of what the soldier sees
• a mix of long and short sentences to communicate the
soldier’s thoughts and feelings
As you read, think about the way the characters talk to each
other, and consider O’Brien’s word choice and sentence
structure. Note passages that seem particularly realistic to you.
Review: Point of View
reading skill: analyze sequence
The sequence of a story is the order in which events occur.
Sometimes a writer interrupts this linear order with a
flashback, an account of an event that happened before the
beginning of the story’s action. A flashback provides more
background information about the current situation and
helps the reader understand the story’s events. To identify
a flashback, look for sudden changes in scene. As you read
this story, note how its flashbacks help create a tense and
frightening mood. Keep track of the story’s order of events by
filling in a sequence chain like the one shown.
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
The soldiers march
in single file.
vocabulary in context
In your Reader/Writer Notebook, try to restate each phrase,
using a different word or words for the boldfaced term.
1. a secret mission depending on stealth
2. huge stalks of corn in the rich, fecund field
Tim O’Brien
born 1946
From Dull to Dangerous
“If you look in a dictionary under the word
boring,” Tim O’Brien says sarcastically, “you
will find a little pen-and-ink illustration of
Worthington, Minnesota, where I grew up.”
As a kid, O’Brien escaped from the quiet
predictability of his hometown by burying
himself in books. Just after he graduated
from a small Minnesota college, O’Brien’s life
got more exciting—but not in a way he ever
would have chosen. He was drafted and sent
to Vietnam.
Combat Zone
O’Brien was strongly opposed to the Vietnam
War and considered fleeing to Canada to avoid
serving in the army. He knew, however, that
failing to enlist would make him an outcast
in his hometown. “That’s a tough thing to do
when you’re that old,” O’Brien says, “to decide
to walk away from your whole history.” He
was shipped to Vietnam in 1969, and though
some of his experiences there were gruesome,
they inspired him to write. In 1973, O’Brien
published his first book, an account of his
time in Vietnam. The war has been the main
subject of his writing ever since.
background to the story
Vietnam War
This story takes place in the Southeast Asian
country of Vietnam during a war in which
over 58,000 Americans died. Rebels backed
by Communist-ruled North Vietnam tried
to take over South Vietnam in 1957. The
U.S. entered the war as a South Vietnamese
ally in 1964. Between 1965 and 1973, over 2
million Americans were sent to Vietnam. Few
were prepared for the fear and anxiety that
would overcome them.
Author
Online
Go to thinkcentral.com.
kcentral.com..
KEYWORD: HML9-827
3. an argument too diffuse to understand
4. lying around in a state of inertia
Complete the activities in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
827
Where Have You Gone,
Tim O’Brien
10
20
The platoon of twenty-six soldiers moved slowly in the dark, single file,
not talking.
One by one, like sheep in a dream, they passed through the hedgerow,
crossed quietly over a meadow and came down to the rice paddy.1 There they
stopped. Their leader knelt down, motioning with his hand, and one by one
the other soldiers squatted in the shadows, vanishing in the primitive stealth
of warfare. For a long time they did not move. Except for the sounds of their
breathing, . . . the twenty-six men were very quiet: some of them excited by the
adventure, some of them afraid, some of them exhausted from the long night
march, some of them looking forward to reaching the sea where they would be
safe. At the rear of the column, Private First Class Paul Berlin lay quietly with
his forehead resting on the black plastic stock of his rifle, his eyes closed. He
was pretending he was not in the war, pretending he had not watched Billy Boy
Watkins die of a heart attack that afternoon. He was pretending he was a boy
again, camping with his father in the midnight summer along the Des Moines
River. In the dark, with his eyes pinched shut, he pretended. He pretended that
when he opened his eyes, his father would be there by the campfire and they
would talk softly about whatever came to mind and then roll into their sleeping
bags, and that later they’d wake up and it would be morning and there would
not be a war, and that Billy Boy Watkins had not died of a heart attack that
afternoon. He pretended he was not a soldier. a
Would you describe this
painting as realistic or
abstract? Cite details
about the painting’s
subject, setting, and
mood, as well as the
artist’s use of light
and color.
stealth (stDlth) n. cautious
or secret action or
movement
a
REALISM
Reread lines 11–21, and
consider O’Brien’s use
of both long and short
sentences to convey Paul
Berlin’s thoughts. What
effect does this stylistic
choice create?
1. hedgerow . . . rice paddy: A hedgerow is a thick hedge separating fields or farms;
a rice paddy is a flooded field in which rice is grown.
828
unit 8: author’s style and voice
Infantry (1997), James E. Faulkner. Oil on canvas. Collection of
Nature’s Nest Gallery, Golden, Colorado. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Comparing Texts
30
40
50
60
In the morning, when they reached the sea, it would be better. The hot
afternoon would be over, he would bathe in the sea and he would forget how
frightened he had been on his first day at the war. The second day would not
be so bad. He would learn.
There was a sound beside him, a movement and then a breathed: “Hey!”
He opened his eyes, shivering as if emerging from a deep nightmare.
“Hey!” a shadow whispered. “We’re moving. . . . Get up.”
“Okay.”
“You sleepin’, or something?”
“No.” He could not make out the soldier’s face. With clumsy, concrete
hands he clawed for his rifle, found it, found his helmet.
The soldier-shadow grunted. “You got a lot to learn, buddy. I’d shoot you
if I thought you was sleepin’. Let’s go.” b
Private First Class Paul Berlin blinked.
Ahead of him, silhouetted against the sky, he saw the string of soldiers
wading into the flat paddy, the black outline of their shoulders and packs and
weapons. He was comfortable. He did not want to move. But he was afraid,
for it was his first night at the war, so he hurried to catch up, stumbling once,
scraping his knee, groping as though blind; his boots sank into the thick
paddy water and he smelled it all around him. He would tell his mother how
it smelled: mud and algae and cattle manure and chlorophyll, decay, breeding
mosquitoes and leeches as big as mice, the fecund warmth of the paddy waters
rising up to his cut knee. But he would not tell how frightened he had been.
Once they reached the sea, things would be better. They would have their
rear guarded by three thousand miles of ocean, and they would swim and dive
into the breakers and hunt crayfish and smell the salt, and they would be safe.
He followed the shadow of the man in front of him. It was a clear night.
Already the Southern Cross2 was out. And other stars he could not yet name—
soon, he thought, he would learn their names. And puffy night clouds. There
was not yet a moon. Wading through the paddy, his boots made sleepy, sloshing
sounds, like a lullaby, and he tried not to think. Though he was afraid, he now
knew that fear came in many degrees and types and peculiar categories, and he
knew that his fear now was not so bad as it had been in the hot afternoon, when
poor Billy Boy Watkins got killed by a heart attack. His fear now was diffuse
and unformed: ghosts in the tree line, nighttime fears of a child, a boogieman in
the closet that his father would open to show empty, saying “See? Nothing there,
champ. Now you can sleep.” In the afternoon it had been worse: the fear had been
bundled and tight and he’d been on his hands and knees, crawling like an insect,
an ant escaping a giant’s footsteps and thinking nothing, brain flopping like wet
cement in a mixer, not thinking at all, watching while Billy Boy Watkins died.
Now as he stepped out of the paddy onto a narrow dirt path, now the fear
was mostly the fear of being so terribly afraid again.
He tried not to think.
2. Southern Cross: a cross-shaped group of stars visible in the Southern Hemisphere.
830
unit 8: author’s style and voice
b
REALISM
Reread lines 26–34. What
specific features of the
characters’ speech make
this dialogue sound
realistic? Explain, citing
evidence to support your
answer.
fecund (fCPkEnd) adj.
producing much
growth; fertile
diffuse (dG-fyLsP) adj.
unfocused
Comparing Texts
70
80
90
100
There were tricks he’d learned to keep from thinking. Counting: He counted
his steps, concentrating on the numbers, pretending that the steps were dollar
bills and that each step through the night made him richer and richer, so that
soon he would become a wealthy man, and he kept counting and considered
the ways he might spend the money after the war and what he would do. He
would look his father in the eye and shrug and say, “It was pretty bad at first,
but I learned a lot and I got used to it.” Then he would tell his father the story
of Billy Boy Watkins. But he would never let on how frightened he had been.
“Not so bad,” he would say instead, making his father feel proud. c
Songs, another trick to stop from thinking: Where have you gone, Billy Boy,
Billy Boy, Oh, where have you gone, charming Billy? I have gone to seek a wife,
she’s the joy of my life, but she’s a young thing and cannot leave her mother, and
other songs that he sang in his thoughts as he walked toward the sea. And
when he reached the sea he would dig a deep hole in the sand and he would
sleep like the high clouds, and he would not be afraid any more.
The moon came out. Pale and shrunken to the size of a dime.
The helmet was heavy on his head. In the morning he would adjust the
leather binding. He would clean his rifle, too. Even though he had been
frightened to shoot it during the hot afternoon, he would carefully clean the
breech and the muzzle and the ammunition so that next time he would be ready
and not so afraid. In the morning, when they reached the sea, he would begin to
make friends with some of the other soldiers. He would learn their names and
laugh at their jokes. Then when the war was over he would have war buddies,
and he would write to them once in a while and exchange memories. d
Walking, sleeping in his walking, he felt better. He watched the moon
come higher.
Once they skirted a sleeping village. The smells again—straw, cattle, mildew.
The men were quiet. On the far side of the village, buried in the dark smells, a
dog barked. The column stopped until the barking died away; then they marched
fast away from the village, through a graveyard filled with conical-shaped burial
mounds and tiny altars made of clay and stone. The graveyard had a perfumy
smell. A nice place to spend the night, he thought. The mounds would make fine
battlements, and the smell was nice and the place was quiet. But they went on,
passing through a hedgerow and across another paddy and east toward the sea. e
He walked carefully. He remembered what he’d been taught: Stay off the
center of the path, for that was where the land mines and booby traps were
planted, where stupid and lazy soldiers like to walk. Stay alert, he’d been
taught. Better alert than inert. Ag-ile, mo-bile, hos-tile.3 He wished he’d paid
better attention to the training. He could not remember what they’d said about
how to stop being afraid; they hadn’t given any lessons in courage—not that he
could remember—and they hadn’t mentioned how Billy Boy Watkins would
die of a heart attack, his face turning pale and the veins popping out.
c
SEQUENCE
Summarize the story’s
events up to this point.
Which events take place
in Vietnam? Which
are scenes the narrator
imagines will happen in
the future or remembers
from his past?
d
GRAMMAR AND STYLE
Reread lines 81–88.
Notice O’Brien’s repetition
of “he would,” which
reflects Paul’s way of
coping with his current
situation.
e
REALISM
Reread lines 91–98.
Identify the sensory
details—details that
appeal to the five
senses—O’Brien
includes. How do
these details contribute
to the vivid, realistic
style of this story?
3. Better alert . . . hos-tile: sayings and chants reminding soldiers to pay attention rather than be
lifeless (inert), and to be light on their feet (agile), ready to move (mobile), and aggressive (hostile).
where have you gone, charming billy?
831
110
120
130
‘
140
150
Private First Class Paul Berlin walked carefully.
Stretching ahead of him like dark beads on an invisible chain, the string of
shadow-soldiers whose names he did not yet know moved with the silence and
slow grace of smoke. Now and again moonlight was reflected off a machine
gun or a wrist watch. But mostly the soldiers were quiet and hidden and faraway-seeming in a peaceful night, strangers on a long street, and he felt quite
separate from them, as if trailing behind like the caboose on a night train,
pulled along by inertia, sleepwalking, an afterthought to the war.
So he walked carefully, counting his steps. When he had counted to three
thousand, four hundred and eighty-five, the column stopped.
One by one the soldiers knelt or squatted down.
The grass along the path was wet. Private First Class Paul Berlin lay back
and turned his head so that he could lick at the dew with his eyes closed,
another trick to forget the war. He might have slept. “I wasn’t afraid,” he was
screaming or dreaming, facing his father’s stern eyes. “I wasn’t afraid,” he was
saying. When he opened his eyes, a soldier was sitting beside him, quietly
chewing a stick of Doublemint gum. f
“You sleepin’ again?” the soldier whispered.
“No,” said Private First Class Paul Berlin. . . .
The soldier grunted, chewing his gum. Then he twisted the cap off his
canteen, took a swallow and handed it through the dark.
“Take some,” he whispered.
“Thanks.”
“You’re the new guy?”
“Yes.” He did not want to admit it, being new to the war.
The soldier grunted and handed him a stick of gum. “Chew it quiet—okay?
Don’t blow no bubbles or nothing.”
“Thanks. I won’t.” He could not make out the man’s face in the shadows.
They sat still and Private First Class Paul Berlin chewed the gum until all
the sugars were gone; then the soldier said, “Bad day today, buddy.”
Private First Class Paul Berlin nodded wisely, but he did not speak.
“Don’t think it’s always so bad,” the soldier whispered. “I don’t wanna scare
you. You’ll get used to it soon enough. . . . They been fighting wars a long
time, and you get used to it.”
“Yeah.”
“You will.”
They were quiet awhile. And the night was quiet, no crickets or birds, and it
was hard to imagine it was truly a war. He searched for the soldier’s face but could
not find it. It did not matter much. Even if he saw the fellow’s face, he would not
know the name; and even if he knew the name, it would not matter much.
“Haven’t got the time?” the soldier whispered.
“No.”
“Rats. . . . Don’t matter, really. Goes faster if you don’t know the time,
anyhow.”
“Sure.”
832
unit 8: author’s style and voice
inertia (G-nûrPshE) n.
tendency to continue
to do what one has
been doing
f
POINT OF VIEW
Identify the point of view
from which this story is
told. How might your
impression of Paul be
different if you didn’t
receive such detailed
descriptions of his
thoughts and feelings?
Comparing Texts
“What’s your name, buddy?”
“Paul.”
“Nice to meet ya,” he said, and in the dark beside the path they shook
hands. “Mine’s Toby. Everybody calls me Buffalo, though.” The soldier’s hand
was strangely warm and soft. But it was a very big hand. “Sometimes they just
call me Buff,” he said.
And again they were quiet. They lay in the grass and waited. The moon was
very high now and very bright, and they were waiting for cloud cover.
160
170
The soldier suddenly snorted.
“What is it?”
“Nothin’,” he said, but then he snorted again. “A bloody heart attack! ” the
soldier said. “Can’t get over it—old Billy Boy croaking from a lousy heart
attack. . . . A heart attack—can you believe it?”
The idea of it made Private First Class Paul Berlin smile. He couldn’t help it.
“Ever hear of such a thing?”
“Not till now,” said Private First Class Paul Berlin, still smiling.
“Me neither,” said the soldier in the dark.
“. . . Dying of a heart attack. Didn’t know him, did you.”
“No.”
“Tough as nails.”
RL 4
Language Coach
Slang Many slang
words—words used
informally with special
meanings—have
original meanings
that relate to animals.
When the soldier
can’t find out the
time, he says, “Rats”
(line 149), expressing
disappointment. What
do you think croaking
and lousy mean in line
163? What are the
original meanings of
these words?
In this painting, the prone
soldiers’ boots take up
the foreground, or front
of the painting, while
the standing soldiers
are relegated to the
background. What does
this suggest about the
message of the painting?
Class of ’67 (1987), Charlie Shobe. Oil on canvas. © Michael Tropea/National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum.
where have you gone, charming billy?
833
180
190
200
210
“Yeah.”
“And what happens? A heart attack. Can you imagine it?”
“Yes,” said Private First Class Paul Berlin. He wanted to laugh. “I can
imagine it.” And he imagined it clearly. He giggled—he couldn’t help it.
He imagined Billy’s father opening the telegram: SORRY TO INFORM
YOU THAT YOUR SON BILLY BOY WAS YESTERDAY SCARED TO
DEATH IN ACTION IN THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM, VALIANTLY
SUCCUMBING TO4 A HEART ATTACK SUFFERED WHILE UNDER
ENORMOUS STRESS, AND IT IS WITH GREATEST SYMPATHY
THAT . . . He giggled again. He rolled onto his belly and pressed his face into
his arms. His body was shaking with giggles. g
The big soldier hissed at him to shut up, but he could not stop giggling
and remembering the hot afternoon, and poor Billy Boy, and how they’d been
drinking Coca-Cola from bright-red aluminum cans, and how they’d started
on the day’s march, and how a little while later poor Billy Boy stepped on the
mine, and how it made a tiny little sound—poof—and how Billy Boy stood
there with his mouth wide-open, looking down at where his foot had been
blown off, and how finally Billy Boy sat down very casually, not saying a word,
with his foot lying behind him, most of it still in the boot.
He giggled louder—he could not stop. He bit his arm, trying to stifle it, but
remembering: “War’s over, Billy,” the men had said in consolation, but Billy
Boy got scared and started crying and said he was about to die. “Nonsense,”
the medic said, Doc Peret, but Billy Boy kept bawling, tightening up, his face
going pale and transparent and his veins popping out. Scared stiff. Even when
Doc Peret stuck him with morphine,5 Billy Boy kept crying. h
“Shut up!” the big soldier hissed, but Private First Class Paul Berlin could
not stop. Giggling and remembering, he covered his mouth. His eyes stung,
remembering how it was when Billy Boy died of fright.
“Shut up!”
But he could not stop giggling, the same way Billy Boy could not stop
bawling that afternoon.
Afterward Doc Peret had explained: “You see, Billy Boy really died of a heart
attack. He was scared he was gonna die—so scared, he had himself a heart
attack—and that’s what really killed him. I seen it before.”
So they wrapped Billy in a plastic poncho, his eyes still wide-open and
scared stiff, and they carried him over the meadow to a rice paddy, and then
when the Medevac helicopter6 arrived they carried him through the paddy
and put him aboard, and the mortar rounds7 were falling everywhere, and the
helicopter pulled up and Billy Boy came tumbling out, falling slowly and then
faster, and the paddy water sprayed up as if Billy Boy had just executed a long
4. valiantly succumbing (sE-kOmPGng) to: bravely dying from.
5. morphine (môrPfCn'): a powerful drug used as a painkiller.
6. Medevac (mDdPG-vBk') helicopter: a helicopter used for transporting injured people to places
where they can receive medical care. “Medevac” is a contraction of “medical evacuation.”
7. mortar rounds: shells fired from small, portable cannons.
834
unit 8: author’s style and voice
L3
g
REALISM
The imaginary telegram
includes a past-tense
verb in the passive
voice, meaning that the
subject son receives the
action of the verb was
scared. When a verb is
in the active voice, the
subject performs the
action. Although the
passive voice should be
used sparingly in formal
writing, it is realistic here
because it emphasizes
the person rather than
what scared him to death.
Why might the writer of
a government telegram
use the passive voice to
emphasize son?
h
SEQUENCE
Reread lines 183–196.
What happens to the
story’s order of events in
these lines? Identify the
clues that helped you
form your answer.
Comparing Texts
220
230
240
250
and dangerous dive, as if trying to
escape Graves Registration, where
he would be tagged and sent home
under a flag, dead of a heart attack.
“Shut up, . . . !” the soldier
hissed, but Paul Berlin could not
stop giggling, remembering: scared
to death.
Later they waded in after him,
probing for Billy Boy with their
rifle butts, elegantly and delicately
probing for Billy Boy in the stinking
paddy, singing—some of them—
Where have you gone, Billy Boy,
Billy Boy, Oh, where have you gone,
charming Billy? Then they found
Chopper Lift-Out (1967), Ken McFadyen. Oil on canvas on hardboard, 30.6 cm × 48.2 cm.
© The Australian War Memorial Collection.
him. Green and covered with algae,
his eyes still wide-open and scared
i SEQUENCE
stiff, dead of a heart attack suffered while— i
What information has
“Shut up, . . . !” the soldier said loudly, shaking him.
been communicated
But Private First Class Paul Berlin could not stop. The giggles were caught
to the reader in this
in his throat, drowning him in his own laughter: scared to death like Billy Boy.
flashback? Explain, citing
Giggling, lying on his back, he saw the moon move, or the clouds moving
details from the text.
across the moon. Wounded in action, dead of fright. A fine war story. He
would tell it to his father, how Billy Boy had been scared to death, never
letting on . . . He could not stop.
The soldier smothered him. He tried to fight back, but he was weak from
RL 4
the giggles.
Language Coach
The moon was under the clouds and the column was moving. The soldier
helped him up. “You okay now, buddy?”
“Sure.”
“What was so bloody funny?”
“Nothing.”
“You can get killed, laughing that way.”
“I know. I know that.”
“You got to stay calm, buddy.” The soldier handed him his rifle. “Half the
battle, just staying calm. You’ll get better at it,” he said. “Come on, now.”
He turned away and Private First Class Paul Berlin hurried after him. He
was still shivering.
He would do better once he reached the sea, he thought, still smiling a little.
A funny war story that he would tell to his father, how Billy Boy Watkins was
scared to death. A good joke. But even when he smelled salt and heard the sea,
he could not stop being afraid. Idioms An idiom is
an expression whose
meaning differs from
the literal meaning
of the words, taken
together, in the
expression. In a war
story, a military idiom
can be confusing. What
does half the battle
mean literally? What
do you think it means in
lines 247–248?
where have you gone, charming billy?
835
Reading for Information
Interview
In this revealing interview, Tim O’Brien talks about two kinds of bravery and
discusses the courage
g it took to make one frightening
g
g choice.
Tim O’Brien: The Naked Soldier
Douglas Novielli, Christopher Connal, and Jackson Ellis, Verbicide Magazine
Do you think you would
have pursued writing if you hadn’t gone
to Vietnam?
O’Brien Probably. It probably would’ve
been something different. If I’d gone to Canada
I’d be writing about that. Life provides you
plenty of material, with girlfriends or whatever.
Verbicide
V Do you think you romanticize
Vietnam at all?
O No. I think a lot of veterans think I
haven’t done that enough, but I refuse to do it.
V Is there a reason they think it should
be romanticized?
O Yeah, they look back on it as more heroic,
and with nostalgia, and they talk about the
fellowship or fraternity among men, and there’s
some truth to that. But it’s an artificial one;
it’s borne of necessity. Even if you don’t like
someone, you’ve got to trust them at night when
they’re on guard and you’re sleeping. And you
learn who to trust and who not to trust, and
you bond that way. But I never found it very
heroic, I just found it stone-man, gotta stay
alive stuff. And that’s all there was to it.
Are soldiers heroes?
In some ways. It’s heroic just not to stop.
Physically, there are always alternatives, I mean,
just stop walking. What can they do? Court
martial you, but they’re not gonna kill you. It
looks pretty attractive, especially in bad days
when guys have been dropping like flies. . . .
V
O
You just keep humping. There’s a weird heroism
in that. Unglamorous kind of valor to just keep
going, knowing you might die with every step,
and just keep walking.
V Is the heroism there in your books to
be interpreted if the reader wants it, or is it
directly implied?
O I remember one part in The Things They
Carried when I was talking about humping
and just taking one step after the next, and at
one point I called it a kind of courage, which
it is, just to keep your legs moving. I’m kind of
explicit about that kind of courage, but there are
other kinds of courage just like there are kinds
of truth. It took a lot of guts, for example, to
go to Canada. Your whole hometown is going
to think of you as a sissy or a coward, even
though it’s totally conscientious. So I admire the
heroism and courage it took. I didn’t have the
guts to do it, to cross over the border.
Do you still regret that?
O Yeah, you can’t live your life over, but
it would have been the right thing to do. I
mean, think how hard it would be, even now
it would be hard and I’m grown up. It was the
thing that was worse than anything about the
war, just going to it. Once you’re in the war,
it’s pretty much what you’d expect. But, boy,
making that decision, because you’re in control
of things. You can go in the army, or you can go
to Canada. I never actually made that drive and
went to the Rainy River.1 That’s invented. But
it did happen in my head all summer long. I
thought about driving to Canada.
V
1. Rainy River: a river on the U.S.– Canadian border. In O’Brien’s short story “On the Rainy River,” the main character
drives to the river and considers whether he should cross the border into Canada and dodge the draft.
836
unit 8: author’s style and voice
Comparing Texts
After Reading
Comprehension
1. Recall According to Doc Peret, what causes the death of Billy Boy Watkins?
2. Clarify Why does Toby want to keep Paul quiet?
3. Summarize How does the story end?
Text Analysis
4. Draw Conclusions Describe how Paul Berlin tries to combat his fear in this
story. How successful is he? Cite evidence to support your conclusion.
RL 4 Determine the figurative
meaning of words and phrases
and analyze the impact of specific
word choices on meaning and
tone. RL 5 Analyze how an
author’s choices concerning how
to order events and manipulate
time create mystery, tension, or
surprise. L 3 Apply knowledge
of language to understand how
language functions in different
contexts and to comprehend
more fully.
5. Identify Conflict Is the main conflict in this story internal or external?
Explain, citing details from the text to support your answer.
6. Analyze Sequence Review the chart you made as you read, and think about
the flashback in lines 183–196, in which Paul recalls the death of Billy Boy
Watkins in vivid detail. Why might O’Brien have used the flashback at this
point in the story? What did it help you, the reader, understand?
7. Analyze Realism Find examples in
the text that illustrate each element
of style shown on the chart. Use
your completed chart to explain how
O’Brien’s use of realism contributes
to the reader’s perceptions of Paul
and his situation.
Element of Style
Examples from Text
Realistic dialogue
Description featuring
sensory details
Passages made up of both
long and short sentences
8. Synthesize In “The Naked Soldier”
Use of flashback
on page 836, O’Brien talks about
two different kinds of courage—the
courage it took to serve in Vietnam
and the courage it took to defy the draft and flee to Canada. In your opinion,
which act was more courageous? Use evidence from both the story and the
interview to support your opinion.
Text Criticism
9. Author’s Style In describing what he strives for when creating stories, O’Brien
states, “You aim for tension and suspense, a sense of drama, displaying
in concrete terms the actions and reactions of human beings contesting
problems of the heart.” How successfully does O’Brien fulfill the above
criteria in this story? Cite evidence from the story to support your opinion.
Is FEAR our worst enemy?
How are some reactions to fear negative? How are some positive?
where have you gone, charming billy?
837
Vocabulary in Context
word list
vocabulary practice
diffuse
Write the word from the Word List that best completes each sentence.
fecund
1. The soldiers moved with _____ across the countryside so that they would
not be spotted by the enemy.
inertia
stealth
2. In spite of all the bombing it had suffered, the land they traveled through
was still _____.
3. In their nervousness, it was hard to bring their _____ thoughts back into
clear focus.
4. They relied on _____ and force of habit to keep them on the path.
academic vocabulary in speaking
• appreciate
• attribute
• indicate
• unique
• vary
What are the attributes of a hero? Prepare a brief instructional presentation
in which you indicate what makes someone a hero and describe what tasks
a regular person can accomplish to become an “everyday hero” (for example,
helping to solve problems in the community). Be sure to solicit questions from
your audience and provide thoughtful answers, and use at least one Academic
Vocabulary word in your presentation.
vocabulary strategy: words that start with inThe forms of certain words beginning with in- can sometimes cause confusion.
When you see a word like inertia, for example, in which in- means “unable to” or
“not,” you might make the assumption that you can remove the prefix to form
a word with an opposite, “positive” meaning. However, there is no such English
word as ertia. To avoid writing incorrect antonyms for words with in-, you can
look up the word’s definition and etymology, or origin, in a dictionary and also
check whether the word exists without the prefix.
L 4c Consult reference materials
to determine a word’s meaning or
etymology.
PRACTICE Create a two-column chart with these headings: “No Positive Form”
and “Positive Form Not Often Used.” Use a dictionary to place each word in the
correct column. Then write a brief definition of each word.
1. incorrigible
5. insuperable
2. inclement
6. insipid
Interactive
Vocabulary
3. insomnia
7. incognito
Go to thinkcentral.com.
4. indolent
8. incongruous
KEYWORD: HML9-838
838
unit 8: author’s style and voice
Comparing Texts
Language
grammar and style: Add Supporting Details
Review the Grammar and Style note on page 831. O’Brien depicts Paul as a
frightened and inexperienced soldier by using details to provide a window
into Paul’s mental state. The repetition that marks Paul’s thoughts reflects his
continuing fear, anxiety, and denial. Here is an example from the story. Note
that O’Brien repeats the verb pretending:
L 3 Apply knowledge of language
to make effective choices for
meaning or style.
He was pretending he was not in the war, pretending he had not watched Billy
Boy Watkins die of a heart attack that afternoon. He was pretending he was
a boy again, camping with his father in the midnight summer along the Des
Moines River. (lines 12–16)
Study the student model. Notice how the revisions in blue use repetition to
reflect Paul’s feelings of denial and anxiety. Revise your response to the prompt
below by using similar techniques.
student model
I’m exhausted and hungry, but I’m not afraid. Don’t worry about me,
—I don’t worry about me .
Dad. I know I’ll be home soon. I’ll be home sooner than you think .
reading-writing connection
YOUR
TURN
Demonstrate your knowledge of “Where Have You Gone, Charming
Billy?” by responding to this prompt. Then use the revising tip to
improve your writing.
writing prompt
revising tip
Short Constructed Response: Letter
Review your letter.
Does it sound realistic?
It should seem as if it
were written by Paul,
on the basis of the traits
he exhibits in the story.
Add some instances of
repetition to emphasize
Paul’s feelings of
anxiety—and his desire
to hide them. Handwrite
the letter again to
include your revisions.
Think about Paul Berlin’s deep desire to please his
father and the fear he grapples with in this story.
Using details from the text, pretend you are Paul
and handwrite a one- or two-paragraph letter
home. Describe your experiences as a soldier, and
be sure to write the letter legibly so that it can be
easily read and understood.
Interactive
Revision
Go to thinkcentral.com.
KEYWORD: HML9-839
where have you gone, charming billy?
839
Reading for Information
Recruitment Poster
The short story and the interview you just read both deal with
the Vietnam War—a long and bloody conflict that divided the
American people. While some Americans thought the United States
should participate in the war, others opposed U.S. involvement and
protested for peace. The poster below was designed to recruit new
Marines during World War II. Even though far more Americans lost
their lives in World War II than in Vietnam, the war effort was widely
supported on the home front.
RL 7 Analyze the representation
of a subject in two different
artistic mediums.
1. DR AW CONCLUSIONS
Consider the image of
the Marine on the poster.
Whom is this poster
intended to recruit? How
could a new recruit both
“be a Marine” and “free a
Marine to fight”?
2 . ANALYZE DETAILS
Study the Marine’s facial
expression, posture, and
overall appearance. How
would you describe her?
3. INFER
During World War II,
posters like this one urged
Americans to support the
war in various ways. How
effective do you think the
posters were? What else
might have accounted for
public support for the war?
Explain your thoughts.
840
unit 8: author’s style and voice
Comparing Texts: Assessment Practice
Assessment Practice: Short Constructed Response
literary text: “where have you gone, charming billy?”
Analyzing characters by making comparisons can help you better understand a literary
text. Practice this skill by answering the short constructed response question below.
How are the characters Paul Berlin and Billy
Boy Watkins in “Where Have You Gone,
Charming Billy?” similar? Support your
answer with evidence from the story.
strategies in action
1. Reread the text, looking closely at the
descriptions of Paul Berlin and Billy Boy
Watkins.
2. Note how the characters are similar in
appearance, personality, or actions.
3. In your answer, share the specific evidence
you find.
nonfiction text: “tim o’brien: the naked soldier”
To demonstrate your understanding of a nonfiction text, you may need to move beyond
the text itself and make judgments about how it relates to something else. Practice this
skill by answering the short constructed response question below.
What insight into O’Brien’s fictional works
might a reader gain from “Tim O’Brien:
The Naked Soldier”? Support your answer
with evidence from the interview.
strategies in action
1. Reread the interview, paying attention to
what O’Brien says about both his life and
his writing.
2. Your response to this prompt should be
based on the information in the interview, not
necessarily the short story. Include a direct
quotation, paraphrase, or specific synopsis
from the interview as evidence.
comparing literary and nonfiction texts
Practice making connections between literary and nonfiction texts by applying the
following short constructed response question to “Where Have You Gone, Charming
Billy?” and “Tim O’Brien: The Naked Soldier.”
How does Tim O’Brien define heroism in
the interview? How is this definition evident
in his short story “Where Have You Gone,
Charming Billy?” Support your answer with
evidence from both texts.
strategies in action
1. Note that this question has two parts. For
the first part, skim the interview to find
O’Brien’s definition of heroism. State this
definition in your answer.
2. For the second part, scan the short story to
find a specific example of heroism. Use the
example as evidence to support the definition.
where have you gone, . . . / tim o’brien: the naked soldier / be a marine
841